Nightmare for flight instructors: Nasa drop-tests a Cessna 172 from 100 feet: on YouTube. Maybe a good reminder to students to maintain airspeed and keep a touch of power in for normal approaches and landings…
(The goal was to test emergency locator transmitters (a selection) that are supposed to start transmitting in response to high G forces.)
“The goal was to test emergency locator transmitters (a selection) that are supposed to start transmitting in response to high G forces”
Seems unlikely NASA requires a Cessna 172 mounted on their tower and then dropped just to determine if ELTs will go off under high G.
I couldn’t tell, was that survivable?
It didn’t look like it would be good for your health to be in that Cessna but it didn’t look deadly either, assuming that you were strapped in. The plane folded in half but the cabin appeared to remain intact so with luck you are looking at maybe some broken bones but you would live to tell the tale.
Scary, but it ended up better than I thought it might. it’s been a while since my training, or even having flown a 172 for that matter but a touch of power as I recall meant crossing the fence at somewhere between 65 and 70 KAIS indicated to be safe. Strange how seeing that drop test actually made me miss flying 🙂
Seems like a reminder that you should have some good training in picking the site of an off airport landing. If they did this on asphalt it would just look like another pretty hard landing, but on a pile of sand…….